Schedule will ease worries
Great time to face Blue Jays
NEW YORK — Don’t worry, Red Sox fans. The going-out-of-business Toronto Blue Jays are staggering into Fenway Park tonight to begin a three-game series against the American League East leaders.
The Sox likely will make short work of the Jays, thereby allowing manager John Farrell to do some more struttin’ about a threegame sweep, just as he did the other day when he was asked about his team’s inconsistencies.
And he was right to strut . . . sort of. The Sox did sweep a three-game set against the Jays last week in Toronto. But here’s what happened Toronto: The Sox moved on to New York and promptly dropped 3-of-4 against the playoffhungry Yankees, including a nationally televised debacle last night at Yankee Stadium. The Bombers chased Chris Sale, the Sox’ vaunted Cy Young Award candidate, after only 41⁄3 innings en route to a 9-2 shellacking.
Sale has lost three of his past four starts. The one victory in that span? Yep: Seven shutout innings against . . . the Blue Jays!
We’ll get to Sale in a moment. First, let’s get this out of the way: Stop with the worrying about what would happen if the Red Sox meet the Cleveland Indians in the postseason. Yes, Sale has struggled against the Indians. But the way things are looking now, the Sox should worry about playing in the postseason. It’s not like they’re going to get a best-of-five against the Blue Jays in the Division Series.
What the Sox have going for them is six more regular-season games against the Jays. They also have three home games against the Oakland A’s, who are languishing in the barrel shed of the AL West.
Oh, and there’s a threegame set in Cincinnati against the Reds. They, too, are in the bottom of the standings in their division, the NL Central.
So yes, the Sox definitely are making the playoffs. But their lead on the second-place Yankees is back down to 31⁄2 games, and the Sox have some business to take care of before Accountability John can set up his postseason pitching assignments.
Naturally, Sale is the Red Sox’ Game 1 starter. It’s been a thrill to watch the stringbean lefty pile up the W’s and the K’s this season, but last night was scary. He survived a first inning in which he gave up two hits and a second inning in which he yielded a walk and a single, but Chase Headley led off the third with a homer to left field to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.
And then came the fourth inning, and back-to-back blasts by Matt Holliday and Todd Frazier. Sale didn’t get out of the inning, which has now happened in two of his past three starts. He lasted just three innings against the Indians on Aug. 24.
Sale was hard on himself after the game but only in relation to last night’s outing against the Yankees. He spoke of “a hanging breaking ball that Headley hit,” “the same thing with (Frazier),” and a fastball that Holliday hit for his home run.
“I just gotta be better than that,” he said, “especially knowing the ballpark we’re playing in.”
But when it came to the big picture — the state of the team, and queries as to whether Sale might be worn down at this point in the season — that’s when he spoke in upbeat terms about where the Red Sox are headed.
“We got plenty of time left,” he said, adding that “we have a good homestand coming up, so we’ll put in some good work and come out of there being where we need to be.”
It’s better than a good homestand coming up; it’s the Blue Jays coming up. And he’s right: Nobody should panic. But some good, old-fashioned concern might be in order right about now.
“We can’t hang our heads now,” said Sale. “We just gotta keep working, keep grinding and stay at it.”
As long as they keep playing the Blue Jays, A’s and Reds, that shouldn’t be a problem.